Good Peers Have Asymmetric Gendered Effects on Female Educational Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Mexico
This study examines the gendered effects of early and sustained exposure to high- performing peers on female educational trajectories. Exploiting random allocation to classrooms within middle schools, we measure the effect of male and female high per- formers on girls’ high school placement outcomes. We disentangle two channels through which peers of either sex can play a role: academic performance and school preferences. We also focus on the effects of peers along the distribution of baseline academic perfor- mance. Exposure to good peers of either sex reduces the degree to which high-achieving girls seek placement in more-selective schools. High-achieving boys have particularly strong, negative effects on high-performing girls’ admission scores and preferences for more-selective schools. By contrast, high-achieving girls improve low-performing girls’ placement outcomes, but exclusively through a positive effect on exam scores.
